


and she didn't even begin to mind it.

by leothequeenn



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: F/M, Fem!Spencer, Fluff, Moreid, i dunno just a cute lil moreid thing, there's also an unsub but i didn't go into too much detail
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-29
Updated: 2016-03-29
Packaged: 2018-05-29 22:10:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6395878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leothequeenn/pseuds/leothequeenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Honestly, anyone wouldn’t not like having Derek Morgan’s hand there, on their mid-back and to have it linger there, and Spencer Reid thought she was of a different species for a while. But now that Derek had actually kept his hand there for a few moments, it made her rethink her philosophy on being different.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and she didn't even begin to mind it.

**Author's Note:**

> ahhhh this is really short and probably all jumbled together and it doesn't probably even make sense but i was tired whenever i wrote it!! this is for shan, because i never knew how much she loved criminal minds until now.

It wasn’t like any typical morning, really. It wasn’t like anything seemed out of place, at least not to Spencer -- and she was the one to kind of, well, notice that stuff first. But nothing was out of place, and it wasn’t like it was a bad thing that everything is still in place, but the fact that no one seemed to realize that _something_ was off drove the genius up the wall.

Derek Morgan was annoyingly quick to realize just how much something drove the brunette crazy, but that ended up driving her even more insane because how could he not sense that something was wrong? The older man was quick to say, “Reid? You alright? Looks like you’ve seen a ghost,” and it wasn’t like that bothered her that he was making fun of her, teasing her for something that they didn’t seem to sense, but something seemed off about everything ever since the same Derek Morgan had stepped inside the office a whole ten minutes and thirty-two seconds before she got here. Maybe that’s what seemed off, the fact that Derek, coffee in his hand, had managed to beat her there -- she was probably only late once or twice but never that late. Regardless, it was weird.

She didn’t seem to notice just exactly how off the situation felt until Derek, after teasing the poor girl, came up and clapped her on the shoulder to show her that he was just joking after she made no attempt to laugh. But that wasn’t the weird part, because he had done that to her so many times, especially after he had teased her and she had made a big deal out of it because she thought he wasn’t joking. The weird part was the way after he had patted her shoulder, and he let his palm linger against her scapula -- and then she felt him move his fingers to her cervical vertebrae, all the way down to her thoracic vertebrae.

That’s what was so off. Normally, he wouldn’t let his hand linger, especially from her shoulder blade to her neck, and then down to her mid-back. It wasn’t professional and it clearly wasn’t Derek-like. He hadn’t ever done that before. Maybe she was reading too much into it.

Spencer didn’t know how to feel about it. She’d try and forget it, but the way his hand felt on her shoulder blade, and her back, she couldn’t forget about it. She had grown used to him touching her, pulling her into hugs and allowing him to whisper secrets to her late at night when they finished working a case and were high on caffeine. But he hadn’t ever touched her back like that for that long. Luckily, he stopped before getting to the arch of her back, but that was probably because he could tell that she was tightening her muscles, arching them away from his hand.

“Reid.”

Emily Prentiss. She had apparently joined the conversation that was carrying on around the girl as she was in her own bubble, trying to figure out the mystery of the lingering hand. God, she needed to go home and sleep. She was already trying to crack this out as some mystery, whenever it probably didn’t even mean much.

“Reid?”

Emily again. Spencer was trying too hard not to focus on _his_ touch, but it wasn’t like she couldn’t not focus on it. Her heart beat was echoing in her ears. It was too loud.

Spencer finally focused on Emily, blinking once or twice before she heard, “are you alright?”

Emily’s dormant motherly-instincts must’ve kicked in and it took a moment for Spencer to get used to that much attention from the group. All eyes were on her, like they finally realized something was wrong whenever Emily first pointed it out.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Spencer responded, even giving a somewhat convincing smile to support her statement. Emily didn’t seem to believe her -- honestly, she didn’t believe herself either -- but if the older woman knew that something was wrong, she didn’t say a damn word about it.

It wasn’t like the whole thing was really that _bad_ either, it just took her as a surprise. She, well, actually kind of liked how it felt, but it truly puzzled her as to _why_ it happened. This was different from a hug, it felt off. Misplaced. Like that hand on her mid-back shouldn’t have even happened because it didn’t belong to her. Spencer figured he would’ve done it to Penelope Garcia or someone else he actually _flirts_ with, but her? Hell no.

The hand on her back had been long gone for a while now, which was okay because now she and the others were doing other things since Aaron Hotchner had come in and informed the group about a new case, but still. Everything felt off because of it. Spencer didn’t know how to feel. Sure, she liked it -- which was an odd sentence in itself. She liked his hand there, it was the perfect space between _awkward_ and _holy shit this is sexual but still very awkward, we are in public for God’s sake_ and it was actually nice. Honestly, anyone wouldn’t not like having Derek Morgan’s hand there, on their mid-back and to have it linger there, and Spencer Reid thought she was of a different species for a while.

But now that Derek had actually kept his hand there for a few moments, it made her rethink her philosophy on being a different species because even though she still hated being touched, Derek Morgan was beginning to crack his way into her shell more than he already has.

And she didn’t even begin to mind it.

 

* * *

 

The more Spencer worked on this case, the more she forgot about how Derek had placed his hand on her back for a few moments. It was because the case was a really rough one, dealing with abducting children and using them as a way to fight other children before killing them. Spencer hated cases that dealt with children, only because it would make the other women and especially Hotchner cringe at how accurate and repetitive the MO is once the unsub kills the children who lose.

Derek had kept his distance while they worked, which Spencer was glad about so she could work, but it was strange not having him so close to her. As they worked through the case though, she could start to sense him mentally stepping closer to her, trying to break inside of her shell again before she could fully be exposed. The fact that she was getting attention at a time like this made her tick, but before she could actually say something about it she reminded herself that maybe she wanted the attention, and now that she had it, she could just do whatever she wanted.

There was a hand placed on Spencer’s back as Derek stood by her, and together they both looked at the photographs of the children. “They all look the same,” she concluded, mentally telling herself to just calm down and relax into his palm, because she was sure he was just doing it as a coping mechanism -- working with crimes against children was hard for all of them. Spencer hated them the most, even if she herself was captured multiple times on cases. She’d rather take being captured and tortured over children being captured and tortured. “I mean, the light skin, dark eyes, dark hair. They all mean something to him, something terrible to the unsub that would make the unsub torture them, kill them, make them fight against each other.”

“Maybe a childhood bully?” Derek asked and Spencer shared a knowing glance with the older man before he turned around to look at their boss.

The more they worked together, throwing ideas that seemed to be the answer out into the open, the more shit they got done. Garcia was even one to tell them, with all of her technical equipment, where the unsub might as well be.

And when they got there, they were able to spare about seven children who the unsub had been keeping in small rooms, waiting to fight. The unsub himself Derek had handcuffed, and he had even managed to cut himself up a bit whenever the unsub tried to fight back.

 

* * *

 

The group made their way into their hotel rooms, since it was close to two AM and there was an unanimous vote to just wait until the morning to get on the plane back home. Spencer made her way into her hotel room, taking her hair down from her bun that she had placed on top of her head on the car ride over to the hotel. She grimaced at her hair, she really needed to cut it again. Seriously, she had cut it to her shoulders two months ago and it was already down to her mid-back again. Emily and JJ were always so jealous of her growing hair that fast, but honestly Spencer hated it. It was too much hair and she was thinking of getting it cut like a boy's, so she didn't have to do much with it.

There was a knock on her door that interrupted her self-loathing of her hair (while in the process of putting on pajamas -- she quickly put on shorts) and she walked over, opening up the door only to see a certain Derek Morgan standing there with a bandage on his cheek. After catching the unsub, Spencer had spent twenty minutes cleaning up the cuts the unsub inflicted onto the older man in the back of the SUV with a first-aid kit Rossi had found in the glove compartment. It wasn't the greatest ambulance, but it was one that they both could manage since the other ambulances were being used for the children.

“Oh, hi.” Spencer wasn’t aware she had said that, but Derek nodded at her as a response. “What’s up?” Maybe she wasn’t too good at this speaking to Derek thing. “I thought you were going to bed?”

“Just wanted to check up on you, I know you hate cases like this,” the older man mumbled, putting his hands in his pockets. “I know JJ said she was going to go around and do that too, but I wanted to get to you first.”

“Is this because that unsub was bullied?” The question honestly slipped out of mouth before the girl had time to close it and with the glare that she had received, she knew it was a terrible thing to ask. But honestly, that’s how she felt. Spencer already had enough problems, not to mention she was bullied terribly as a child, but did that mean that Derek had an underlying thought that she would turn out like that?

“That isn’t what I meant, Spence,” his voice was sincere, but it didn’t make Spencer feel any better. “I was just coming up and checking up on you--”

“Before JJ could get to me,” the brunette pointed out and the older man nodded his head. “And why would that be?”

Derek paused, which was a rare sight to see, and it seemed like he wanted to say something but before he could actually say what he wanted, he muttered out, “you're too smart for your own good." More teasing. She was used to it.

"Trust me, I know,"

"But it ain't a bad thing. Night, kid,” and Spencer had no choice but to say goodnight to him as well.

However, whenever she closed the door, it wasn’t a good night at all. Spencer didn’t sleep.

 

* * *

 

Spencer had been racking her brain trying to figure out the possible outcomes of what Derek was going to say, but all she had come up with was something that Garcia probably would’ve thought up in her fantasies. Spencer wasn’t like that, though, but the fact that she had spent all night thinking about him and what he could’ve said maybe proved otherwise.

But as she was sitting on the plane, playing a game of chess with Emily, Derek came over and sat down beside her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders (but he played it off like he was just resting his arm on the back of the seat) and it all made sense. It all clicked, everything. The way his hand lingered before, the way he visited her at two in the morning, sitting next to her now. All the teasing beforehand. It all made sense.

With one look from Derek and a smirk of his lips, Spencer felt her heart beat a little bit quicker and her cheeks grow a little bit hotter. And she didn't even begin to mind that, either.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed! ♥


End file.
